Everyone knows everything about the celebrities they care most about before they even go anywhere. So, why bother showing up?

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Before any celebrities showed up to Monday night's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala, held annually to fete its new fashion exhibit and raise millions of dollars, everyone knew all the mundane details of the celebrities slated to parade themselves up those glorious red stairs. Model Karlie Kloss was taking kissy selfies with her Champagne-clutching gal pal Taylor Swift. Kardashian-turned-credible fashion model Kendall Jenner had been encased in a pale taupe mermaid-cut Topshop tube gown, her hair left matted and wild. (In case you also needed to know, her clutch was by Tabitha Simmons and her diamond necklace, Chopard.) Designer Stella McCartney had sent model, soon-to-be actress, and Rihanna inner-circle member Cara Delevingne silver mylar balloons that spelled out her name. But if you were looking for Rihanna, too bad, because her Instagram account was mysteriously deactivated, brought back, then deactivated again the day of the ball.

Even fashion designers, who the night's host and principle organizer, Vogue magazine, tasks with dressing and escorting celebrities to the ball, shared photos of their famous dress-up dolls before they even got there. Rodarte rode over to the ball with Shailene Woodley and Kirsten Dunst packed into their car. Michael Kors offered a first look of the look he created for Ming Xi.

And Stella McCartney boasted a shot of Cara Delevingne's see-through mesh underwear, embroidered with her name. By the time anyone showed up to the ball and actually walked the red carpet, they felt like old news. And many of the celebs who hadn't seemingly spoiled their red carpet moments on social media arrived to anticlimactic reception. Because — oh, yeah — all those Hollywood people who don't use social media and insist on wearing "safe" outfits are so easy to forget about, not to mention difficult to get excited about.

A photo posted by Stella McCartney (@stellamccartney) on May 5, 2014 at 4:07pm PDT

By the time anyone showed up to the actual ball, what was the point of the whole red carpet charade anyway? As stars get smarter about owning their images on Instagram and Twitter, their appearances and even interviews become considerably less meaningful as vehicles for self-promotion and image-molding. The press lined up along the red carpet and asked the typical questions about how the stars got ready and who they were looking forward to partying the night away with, but the answers had already been broadcast to the world in a carefully filtered and curated slew of images dominating the celebrity conversation happening on social media. The next best moments would unfold once the stars were inside the ball with their cell phones as the night went on.

The night served as another reminder that the select celebrities who have refused to take part in social media, and have no Twitter or Instagram presence, drum up about as much excitement when they arrive to things like the Met Gala as thoroughly as D-list stars, no matter how A-list they really are. If the Internet has given everyone the ability to become famous, what sense does it make that the people who have become so famous independently of the Internet outright reject it? It's almost as bothersome as celebrities who bemoan the public's interest in their personal lives or paparazzi images of them walking to their cars. You probably became famous in large part because you wanted to — and now you're acting like you don't like it? goes collective public exasperation. Please.

Stars hardly have to be in the same room interacting with one another in the face of gossip writers, much less within earshot of them, to become stories. The most famous among them have figured out that the ongoing behind-the-scenes look at their lives that media like Instagram and Twitter afford them are the best way to stay atop the public conversation. In this age, a single photo of an outfit or moment — even of something as mundane as Rihanna going to the grocery store — is an entire story. When you can see your favorite celebrities waking up in bed, drinking wine, and smoking a blunt with no bottoms on, or lounging around in nothing but a film of grease and a tiny bikini, photos of them walking down a red carpet feel a lot less authentic and, frankly, boring.

Except for Rihanna, perhaps. But only because you could see her nipple rings through her crop top and, well, her Instagram isn't back up yet.